"This represents a great deal for our customers, as well as for our industry, as we believe it will help to drive footfall and stimulate increased sales of new games releases and hardware, as well as other entertainment products available from HMV," said Tim Ellis, games boss at the retailer.

HMV joins specialist videogame outlets GAME and GameStation in offering second-hand games for sale and trade-in.

But while the move will be popular with consumers, developers and publishers being denied their cut of re-sold games are not so thrilled.

The on-going PC DRM/SecuROM saga also has close ties to the trade-in market. Observers claim the real aim has been to prevent pre-owned sales rather than combat piracy - which it has proved rather ineffective against.